Traditional Bluegrass

Traditional bluegrass adheres to the sound codified by *Bill Monroe* and his Blue Grass Boys in the mid-1940s: an acoustic string band of mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar and upright bass playing at driving tempos, with solos passed between instruments and high, close singing above. *Flatt & Scruggs* and *The Stanley Brothers* fixed the repertoire of breakdowns, gospel quartets and mountain ballads, and later bands such as *The Dillards* and *The Country Gentlemen* preserved the template with minimal change. Against progressive bluegrass, the traditional style treats Monroe's instrumentation, repertoire and attack as binding conventions rather than starting points.